We liked it when he was getting after Tom Brady, didn’t we? Good ol’ Roger Goodell, taking on the cheating quarterback of the NFL’s evil empire. The NFL commissioner had Indianapolis’ back, and we loved him for it. Stay strong, Roger. You’re the man.

And we liked it — we still do like it — when he’s hammering cretins accused of domestic violence. The six-game suspension he gave Ezekiel Elliott told the Dallas Cowboys running back it’s not OK to batter your girlfriend, leaving pictures she says she took of herself, pictures available all over the internet, pictures of scrapes and bruises she says were administered by Elliott. Be tough, Roger. You’re the best.

Listen, this isn’t some come-to-Jesus moment where we decide that, you know what, maybe Tom Brady was treated unfairly a few years ago. He wasn’t. There are two sides to every story, even one as cut-and-dried as multiple NFL footballs found to be under-inflated on the sideline featuring Brady’s stooge, a Patriots employee whose nickname in the locker room is The Deflator. But Goodell got DeflateGate right.

And maybe, ultimately, he’s getting the Ezekiel Elliott case right. Maybe Elliott did batter his girlfriend. This is not me saying: Elliott is not guilty. This is me saying: Goodell can’t be trusted to judge his innocence.

The NFLPA argues that the NFL official who interviewed Elliott’s girlfriend concluded she wasn’t credible. That’s called “exculpatory evidence.” The NFLPA also argues that the NFL didn’t share that exculpatory evidence with Goodell. That’s called “unethical.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell talks on the sideline before a game between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium.(Photo: Greg M. Cooper -USA TODAY Sports)

The NFL has not denied those arguments. So this is me calling the NFL justice system unethical.

That seems to be the prevailing opinion around the country, by the way. Does anybody trust Goodell, even here in Indianapolis, where his rigged adjudication of justice actually seemed to get the Brady ruling right? The NFL is the prosecution and the judge and the jury, and unless the defendant – in this case, Ezekiel Elliott – seeks relief before a real court and not just Goodell’s kangaroo version, the NFL can stack the appellate court as well.

When a system is set up as unfairly as the one by the NFL, that’s called “Russia.”

Thing is, Goodell is so much smarter than this. You’ve seen what he has done with the NFL, the way he has steered this sport into a stratosphere where franchises are worth billions. That brain of his, it’s operating at a level most of us can’t comprehend.

Which makes the way he administers justice, and the fact that he thinks it’s OK, so incomprehensible. Yes, yes, if anyone out there still sides with Goodell, you’re probably playing the collective bargaining card right now. Lord knows that’s the biggest card in Goodell’s rigged deck. The NFL negotiated its disciplinary system with the NFLPA. The collective bargaining agreement allows for Goodell to be prosecutor, judge and jury. The NFLPA gave away too many of its rights. Pretty sure we all know that. The NFLPA gave Goodell this power.

But Goodell is abusing that power. And United States District Judge Amos Mazzant III sees it.

Mazzant is the judge who issued an injunction Friday to stop the NFL’s six-game suspension of Elliott, noting that Elliott was unable to confront his accuser – the girlfriend – or Goodell, neither of whom was made to testify during Elliott’s appeal that was presided over by an arbitrator, Harold Henderson, who once worked 16 years for the NFL.

Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott (21) on the bench during the game against the Oakland Raiders at AT&T Stadium.(Photo: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports)

Guess who appointed Henderson, Goodell's former vice president, as arbitrator over the Elliott case?

Goodell.

More from Mazzant: “The NFL's actions demonstrate that from the very beginning of the decision-making process, a cloud of fundamental unfairness followed Elliott. Unfortunately, this cloud followed Elliott into the arbitration proceedings."

Ultimately he ruled in favor of Elliott, though not because the evidence shows Elliott’s innocence. No, Mazzant wrote in his statement: “Elliott did not receive a fundamentally fair hearing.”

And that, in a nutshell, is the problem with NFL justice under Roger Goodell. It’s so fundamentally unfair, it just inadvertently set free a player who may well have battered his girlfriend. Here in Indianapolis, we liked it when this fundamentally unfair system disciplined Brady and the Patriots. Let’s be honest about that. But let’s be honest about this:

At some point, Roger Goodell could set his sights on someone who plays for the Indianapolis Colts, or whatever NFL franchise you consider your own. When a system this awful comes after your team, that’s called “terrifying.”